But unluckily the sea made no allowance for all this.
For just as Mary, with her bag quite full, was stooping with a long stretch to get something more--a thing that perhaps was the very best of all, and therefore had got into a corner--there fell upon her back quite a solid lump of wave, as a horse gets the bottom of the bucket cast at him.

This made her look up, not a minute too soon; and even then she was not at all aware of danger, but took it for a notice to be moving.
And she thought more of shaking that saltwater from her dress than of running away from the rest of it.
But as soon as she began to look about in earnest, sweeping back her salted hair, she saw enough of peril to turn pale the roses and strike away the smile upon her very busy face.

She was standing several yards below the level of the sea, and great surges were hurrying to swallow her.

The hollow of the rocks received the first billow with a thump and a slush, and a rush of pointed hillocks in a fury to find their way back again, which failing, they spread into a long white pool, taking Mary above her pretty ankles.

"Don't you think to frighten me," said Mary; "I know all your ways, and I mean to take my time." But even before she had finished her words, a great black wall (doubled over at the top with whiteness, that seemed to race along it like a fringe) hung above the rampart, and leaped over, casting at Mary such a volley that she fell.